This disclosure relates to an audio playback system that modifies the presentation of audio based on knowledge of the content.
Home theater systems are generally capable of manipulating the audio portion of entertainment content in a variety of ways. Two of the most common aspects of the audio for a system to modify are the equalization and the spaciousness of the content. Different types of content may benefit from different types of processing. For example, it may be desirable for musical content to be distributed to left and right main speakers, according to the original stereo mix of the recording, while the audio track of a news broadcast, which is mainly human voice, should be mostly played back from a center speaker. Problems may arise when more than one type of content are combined. For example, a person speaking while background music plays, or a television program that switches from one type of content to another. Depending on how the audio content is mastered, it may not be practical to separate the speech, for delivery via the center speaker, from the music, for delivery from left and right speakers, let alone to determine the correct relative volume for the two parts.